Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Chimichurri sauce - Argentina





I decided to enter this original recipe round-up.


I decided to make chimichurri sauce. This delicious south american marinade/sauce is normally used with meat but is versatile and can be used in vegetarian food as well. To me its Argentina's chutney! I love the original chimichurri recipe with olive oil, parsley, garlic, vinegar and red pepper flakes. I made many modifications and came up with an entirely new, different creamy chimichurri that was a great hit at dinner. I added the chimichurri to portobello marinated in balsamic vinegar. I made this into a panini sandwich.

Servings approx. 4 - should make about 6 sandwiches with sauce left over

Ingredients for sauce:
3/4 buch of parsley
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of red vinegar marinade/dressing
1/2 large shallot
2 pinches of cumin
2 pinches of chili powder
1 pinch of ginger powder
1 tsp of oregano
1 tbsp sugar (to taste if you feel its sweet enough do not add)
1 tso of dried basil
1 cap full of lemon juice
1 small green chili (add more if you like things spicy)
2-3 tbsp sour cream
2 tbsp Sabra's tahini hummus
2-3 tbsp tomato sauce
salt to taste

Ingredients for sandwich:
1 package of sliced portobello mushrooms
1 loaf of bread
1 package of pizza blend or italian blend cheese
red pepper flakes

Blend all the sauce ingredients together. It seems like a lot of hodge podge. I kept adding, tasting etc. In the end I think it came out great. Even with the tomato sauce your sauce will retain its green color as shown in the picture. Marinate the portobello mushrooms on a skillet with a light balsamic vinegar, allow the mushrooms to absorb the juices while you are making your sauce. Add approx 2 tbsp of the sauce, 3-4 slices of portobello mushrooms in any kind of bread with some mozzarella cheese and sprinkle on some red pepper flakes. Yum!Cook in a panini maker, skillet or oven.